The LAO is optimistic about nearly $15 billion in additional resources to allocate after putting another $15 billion into the Rainy Day fund. The report concedes its November 2000 projection of a $10.3 billion estimated surplus for 2001-02 was crushed by the dot-com bust and ensuing recession. We know how that ended. Continue reading→

Sacramento, CA – “It is fair for an employee to be paid a pension based on each place he or she works. But currently, the formula used by the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) biases retirement costs in favor of bigger cities that can pay higher salaries against smaller cities who are often on the hook for payments they didn’t agree to.” Continue reading→

Sacramento, CA – “As the second of my package of pension reform bills, I’m introducing Senate Bill 1032, the Local Pension Protection Act of 2018. It would protect local pensions from being severely punished when they choose to leave the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and fund their employee retirements with a different plan.

“A dramatic example is Loyalton, population 862, which has just one employee and four retirees. When it chose to leave CalPERS in 2013 because of rising costs it couldn’t afford, CalPERS charged it with a $1.66 million ‘termination fee,’ forcing pension cuts by 60 percent rather than pay the extravagant fee the small community could not afford. Continue reading→

Sacramento, CA – “I have been asking for months, since the many substantial claims of sexual harassment and assault poured out of Hollywood, that the California Legislature do better to address the subsidies we are sending to what looks to be a very depraved industry. It was not long after that similar accusations of sexual misconduct were made regarding colleagues in the State Legislature, leading to the resignation of two Assemblymembers and the suspension of a Senator. Something needs to change. Continue reading→

Secession seems to be in the air. On Sunday, 90 percent of Catalonia voters chose to secede from Spain. Last June, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra authorized signature gathering to put a California Secession initiative on the Nov. 2018 ballot.

So it’s not surprising that today Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 54, which effectively declares California has seceded from the United States on major parts of immigration-law enforcement. Continue reading→

SACRAMENTO, CA — After a whirlwind of discussions thanks to Gov. Brown’s legislative cram down, the Senate Republican Caucus delivered him a letter voicing concerns about the detrimental effects of his proposed cap-and-trade policy.